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because the ritual could now be altered in any manner or direction according to the opinions and taste of each individual minister, male or female, and no authority could impugn this right. More than this, a clergyman could at any time appoint any competent woman to undertake for him the whole or any part of his services, including the ministration of sacraments. It may well be supposed that the optional institution of clergywomen in place of clergymen produced a powerful effect upon large portions of society. For instance, the churches filled with men who before had turned their backs upon everything religious; for the sake of kneeling to girls as their ministers, they would put up with forms of words which they could not endorse. Whatever the National Church may have been during its reign, at its lapse it was become an undeniable blessing, a lever of genuine progress.